The Press Democrat
Gil Mansergh is an accomplished writer and educator with significant experience in journalism, film criticism, and psychological education. Currently serving as the Petaluma Profile Columnist for The Petaluma Argus-Courier since 2017, Gil features diverse individuals and groups in the community. As a novelist with Harper Davis Publishing since 2011, Gil's work includes a series inspired by family stories. Additional roles include resident film critic at the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival, producer and host of "Word By Word: Conversations With Writers" on KRCB, and columnist for both the Press Democrat/Argus Courier and Sonoma West Publishing. Gil is also the President Emeritus of the California Writers Club—Redwood Branch and the owner of Gilbert P. Mansergh Consulting, providing educational services. Educational credentials include a CPhil in Educational Psychology from Indiana University Bloomington and multiple degrees in Psychology from Stanford University.
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The Press Democrat
The very first newspaper in Santa Rosa, the parent of today's Press Democrat, was begun in 1857, just three years after Santa Rosa was chosen as the seat of Sonoma County and seven years after California became a part of the United States. Called the Sonoma Democrat this newspaper was a four-page weekly. Its name reflected the politicsof the Santa Rosa and Russian River valleys, which were settled in the 1840s and '50s by farmers from Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee. The founding publisher was Alpheus Russell, a merchant with some newspaper experience who came to open a general store on Third Street. John Taylor, a prosperous rancher south of the new town, encouraged Russell to establish the paper, giving him a five-dollar gold piece for the first subscription. At the end of a year, Russell sold the paper to printer E.R. Budd, who sold it again in 1860. The new owner was Thomas Thompson, a young Virginian who had edited Petaluma's Sonoma County Journal five years earlier at the age of 17.